This was a proposition to which Uncle Dick could cheerfully assent, and his neighbour was satisfied. ‘I want to speak to Caleb for a minute, uncle,’ said Madge as she advanced. Uncle Dick nodded, and walked leisurely after the harvesters, accompanied by Philip. ‘Yes, miss,’ was the respectful observation of the redoubtable champion. ‘I am glad to see you back, because I have been wanting you for several days.’ ‘What for, miss?’ ‘Well, I want to know in the first place, are you engaged anywhere?’ ‘Not at present.’ ‘Then will you let me engage you for a friend of mine?’ ‘I’d like to do anything to please you, miss; but maybe your friend wouldn’t care to have me.’ He said this with a faint smile, as if regretting that she had given herself any trouble on his account. ‘He is not only ready to take you, but is willing to let you select the hands who are to work under you for the whole of the harvest.’ ‘That would be agreeable, if there is no bother about the wages.’ ‘They will be the same as here.’ ‘We wouldn’t want more than Master Crawshay gives.’ ‘When can you get the hands together?’ ‘In a day or two. But you haven’t told me where the place is, and I would have to know how much there is to cut.’ ‘Now you are to remember that it is I who am engaging you, Caleb, although the place is not mine; and I want you to get people who will consent to do without beer until after work.’ ‘You mean Ringsford,’ he said awkwardly. ‘I’m afeared’—— There she stopped him by laying her hand on his shoulder and saying with a bright smile: ‘I know you don’t take beer yourself, and you know how much the others will gain by dropping it. I want you to get this work done, Caleb; and there is somebody else who will be as much pleased with you for doing it as I shall be. Come now, shall I tell _her_ that you refuse to be near her, or that you are glad of the chance?’ Caleb hung his head and consented. He knew that she spoke of Pansy. CHAPTER XIII.—THE CARES OF STATE. The ladies of the Manor were in the element which delighted them most when preparing for the dinner and the ‘little dance’ which were to express the agony they experienced at the departure of their brother for a distant land. But the truth was that they did not think of the parting at all: their whole minds were occupied with the festival itself and with the ambition to make it the most brilliant that had ever been known at Ringsford.